Prepping 101

Resources: Portable Woodstove $58.95 Shipped on Ebay SilverFire Hunter Rocket Stove $219 Butterfly Oven – $79 St. Paul Mercantile Perfection Oven – Lehmans $219 Have you noticed that survival is almost always a Catch 22? And by that I don’t mean rimfire lol. What I mean is you have to make a choice in just [...]

Long term food storage is a fairly complex subject. All food eventually goes bad, so whatever we do to extend that time as long as possible, you have to think about it in those terms. Some foods, like rice, beans, grains, and even flour, in a proper container and with proper precautions, all covered in prior articles, will last up to 20 years. Canned food, bought at the store, could last that long, or even ten times that long, though after a few years the flavor tends to degrade. But from a survival perspective, that’s pretty good. I personally believe that in the grand game of extend and pretend musical chairs, the music has stopped, but you just never know. This could all burn down this month, or it could be years ahead. If you have a free or cheap source of meat, fish, or other high density protein, home canning is something you should consider.

A lot of these articles I write for those of you “in the trenches.” And by that I mean the people who have taken seriously the risks that we all face ahead, possibly this year, possibly even this month. Most things I write about I don’t expect a lot of you to go out and [...]

It is extremely rare that I suggest a product to you without testing it first, but this week I think it is prudent to let you know what is going on out there in the world of mosquito netting. Big surprise, prices are going up due to the Zika scare, and availability is going down. I got three order cancellations on Ebay in the past few weeks, from sellers in China selling direct from the factory. The spread of Zika is much more of a threat than we are being led to believe. By summer,as mosquito populations increase, cases of Zika will skyrocket, and when the first wave of babies in born in Brazil, from the estimated over 4,000 cases now, the world will be scrambling for ways to keep mosquitoes at bay. If you have females in your group in danger of getting pregnant, now would be the time to purchase some netting products yourself.

My whole paradigm on cooking has changed since starting this column. I was like most Americans. When it comes to off the grid cooking, propane was the way to go. 2nd to that was white gas, otherwise known as Coleman Fuel. What I have come to understand is that from a survival perspective, both of those fuels will be extremely rare. I have discovered wood burning “Rocket Stoves” for prior articles, and my latest fascination is with stoves like you’ll see this week that were made for kerosene. As I have explained in past weeks, these stoves burn regular gaspump diesel just as clean as kerosene, which is getting harder and harder to find, especially at a reasonable price. Diesel has to meet new EPA standards for sulfur emissions, and that has made it almost indistinguishable from kerosene. Diesel does not produce flammable fumes, and if you toss a match into a puddle of diesel, the match will go out. If you are storing fuel for the collapse, diesel is your best option, but you do need stoves for cooking and heaters for heating that are specifically designed for kerosene to burn it in a useful way.

Cracking the black box of survival. That is what this column has become more than anything else. This week I would like to demystify another survival topic that, much like Ham radios, radiation and EMP, is fraught with disinformation and obfuscation online. Learning to keep bees is not inexpensive, but it is a hobby that [...]

Hand Crank Sewing Machines on Ebay Hand Crank for Belt Drive Machines $13.95 Hand Crank and Spoked Wheel $24.95 This week I would like to introduce an incredible invention to a few of you called the hand crank sewing machine. Sure, it was invented over 100 years ago, but they are no less amazing today. [...]

This week will be my first installment into canning food in steel cans. Think of it this way. You haven’t eaten in a week. You just killed a deer. You really would like to be able to eat venison next week without having to kill another deer. What do you do?

Resources: Geiger Counters: Ebay Seller Impexeris (This is the black GM tube bug from the video, which is a standalone as well as Iphone/Android, and the kits for GM tubes and Arduino) The Black Phone Bug RH Electronics (The red and blue boards from the video, DIY kits you can pay $12 for him to [...]